Rare chance to see 19th Century Japanese prints

Colourful woodblock prints featuring celebrities, actors, sport champions, fashion icons and villains were eagerly sought after in Edo, the former name of Tokyo.

They are on loan from the private collection of writer and lecturer Frank Milner, who describes them as "the most democratic art of the 19th century".

He said: “I am fascinated by the way a million-strong city like Edo under a collapsing authoritarian feudal society managed to produce prints that were an expression of people’s enthusiasms, pleasures and desires.

"Famous actors, great courtesans, scallywag firefighters and wrestling champions – the pulsating life of a city – is what I like seeing. Many of these pictures are portraits. As photography came late to Japan, these prints reveal what these famous characters looked like.”

It was the era of Kabuki theatre, Sumo wrestling, poetry, geishas and sexual experimentation and the prints offer a window into customs, pastimes and lifestyle.

"At a time when European presses produced black and white engravings, Japanese printmakers were doing huge runs of hand-cut, hand printed full colour images on hand-made paper for the price of a haircut,” said Mr Milner

Widely collected were beauty prints depicting prostitutes, leading wrestlers, memorial portraits of celebrities and actors, erotic prints – produced despite being illegal – and actors who often risked prosecution for their lavish lifestyles.

Edo Pop: Urban Culture in Historic Japan runs until April 12.